But the problem is he doesn't show how to remove the microswitches and wire the new buttons.

So here are the issues I have now..

how do I remove the micro switches from the circuit board?

Apparently one way to do it is to heat the solder then remove the switches. But on the mouse I am using there seems to be no solder or very little. So I am thinking you have to pry them off or something. But seems like it would hurt them or the circuit board.

The other thing I am wondering about is what kind of wire to use to reroute the buttons and what guage wire. maybe it doesn't matter really but I want to make sure I use the right type.

1.heat up the solder2.use pliers to pull it out3.If your are doing lego robotics just solder two wires to the switchIF you have other questions or are doing something other than lego robotics check out the tutorial on the main page. It doesn't reeally mater what gauge wire, it seems like people worry about that way to much. unless you are working with really high voltages, don't worry about it. just use hookup wire found at Radio Shack.

Ok, thanks Trmpkin. Sounds simple enough. I think that's kind of my problem with electronics. I probably make it more doifficult than it is in my head.

what I am trying to do is just make my own custom mouse but it will be different than the one in that tutorial because I don't have metal working tools. What I was thinking of trying to do was make the mouse housing out of fiberglass.

Does anyone have any info on making a custom mouse? I would like to make something really weird and different from a typical mouse with a lot of buttons.. but I don't know if I could program it easily.

Removing the switch was a total disaster. I tried to heat the pins that held it in place but it did nothing. I was able to pull the switch off but it completely destroyed the switch.. oh well.. I can just buy some new ones, right? They must be really cheap..

There was really no solder holding them in place it was just as if theese pins were impregnated in this kind of plastic circuitboard..

ahh... that happened to me once when i was trying to unsolder some LEDs. The switch probably had some round pins that kinda looked like screws, right? That stinks, but yeah, switches are really cheap. I think the have them at www.pololu.com

I think it might be the circuit board of my mouse that made it so they wouldn't pull out. It had this plastic coating on both sides. I'm thinking the switches were stamped in when it was hot which made them impossible to remove when cooled.

I have an old cheap mouse with normal circuit boards. I'm going to try to steal some switches from that. I hope they work with the other mouse.